


doomed to crumble unless we grow

by dorky (dorcas_gustine)



Category: Thor (2011)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-06-12
Updated: 2011-06-12
Packaged: 2017-10-20 08:50:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,544
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/210948
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dorcas_gustine/pseuds/dorky
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>Five lies Loki told that Thor believed, and one truth Loki told that Thor didn't believe at all.</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	doomed to crumble unless we grow

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [](http://community.livejournal.com/norsekink/profile)[**norsekink**](http://community.livejournal.com/norsekink/) about, um, a month ago? The original prompt is [here](http://norsekink.livejournal.com/1123.html?thread=625763#t625763).
> 
> Betaed by [](http://roachpatrol.livejournal.com/profile)[**roachpatrol**](http://roachpatrol.livejournal.com/) and [](http://spatialrift47.livejournal.com/profile)[**spatialrift47**](http://spatialrift47.livejournal.com/) , thanks guys!
> 
> Title comes from Tool's song _Schism_ , which is heartbreaking and everyone should listen to it.

**1.**

Loki was reading by the fireplace and Thor as well seemed uncharacteristically calm and quiet. Then again, it was usually the case when he spent the evening in Loki’s chambers. It wasn’t often, but sometimes he would come and sit in silence as Loki read or studied some new spells. As much as this behaviour had always puzzled Loki – didn’t Thor get bored? – he had never enquired about it; if there was something Loki hated more than not knowing, it was showing his lack of knowledge.

This particular evening wasn’t destined to be quiet for long, though. They both heard the quick steps coming closer, and then the doors burst open and the Lady Sif was there, angrier than Loki had ever seen her.

“ _You_!” she said, pointing at Loki. “You miserable, wretched-”

Loki’s eyebrows climbed up his forehead with every insult she spewed, when she got to ‘vile serpent’ he raised a hand.

“Please,” he said, calmly. “Bear in mind to whom you’re talking.”

“Oh, I know _exactly_ to whom I am talking!” she exclaimed, striding towards him and grabbing him by the lapels and pulling him up.

The book fell from his grasp and tumbled down, its precious, ancient pages creasing at odd angles.

Sif shook him so hard his teeth clicked together. “ _You_ are-“ she started.

He interrupted her before she could begin again with the insults. “I meant, bear in mind I am Odin’s son.”

“I would not care if you were the All-Father hims-”

“Sif!” finally came Thor.

He pried Sif’s hands from Loki’s clothes and stepped between the two of them. Loki stepped back and went to retrieve his book. “To what do we owe the pleasure of your company, Milady Sif?” he asked, uninterested as he checked his book over for damage.

“Oh, you should very well know, mischievous fiend,” she said, advancing on him yet again. Loki took a few steps back, hiding his book behind his back in case it should come to harm a second time.

This time, though, Thor was faster to act and he was once again between the two of them. “Sif, please,” he said. “Speak your mind and then leave us to our affairs.”

She glared at both of them, and if her prowess in battle was on par with the violence the anger in her eyes promised, then she was indeed the fierce shieldmaiden everyone spoke of so highly.

“We had a wager, Hogun, Fandral, Volstagg, your brother and I,” she said. “And your brother cheated!”

“What was the wager?” Thor asked.

“It matters not,” Loki replied with a shrug. “For I did not cheat.”

“Liar!”

Thor turned to look at him, one eyebrow raised in question.

“I did not cheat,” Loki repeated, “I was simply cleverer than them.”

Thor’s laughter boomed in the wide room. “That I can believe,” he said, smacking Loki on the shoulder and almost making his book fall out of his hands for the second time that evening.

“Thor, you cannot-”

“Come, Sif,” Thor said, slinging an arm over her shoulders. “You should know better than to wager against my brother.”

“He cheated.”

“I did not.”

“I better take my leave of you, brother,” Thor said with a grin, “lest you never get to see how that book of yours ends. Come, Sif, let us drink your sorrows away.”

Loki watched as Thor half dragged, half pushed Sif away with him while she kept directing glares at him over his shoulder.

“Fear not, Loki,” Thor said as he reached the threshold. “I will be back so you can tell me how it ends.”

“It’s a spell book,” Loki said.

“Then you can show me,” Thor grinned. “I will see you later, brother.”

“You will.”

The doors slammed closed behind Thor, almost deafening as it echoed all throughout Loki’s chambers. He stared at the doors for a long moment, and then he curled by the fire and opened his book to the last word he had read and restarted from there.

 

 **2.**

They were both lying in the tall grass, waiting for the sun to dry the sweat from their skin after all the running they had done.

Neither of them spoke for a long time, until Thor rose up with his arms and turned to look down at Loki. “What Father said when we were children, do you remember?”

Loki frowned. “Father said a lot of things when we were children,” he said. “He still does now that we are men.”

“He said both of us were born to be kings, but only one of us would be,” Thor said and fell back to look at the sky. “I am firstborn, therefore _I_ was born to be king of Asgard, but why did he say both of us, then? Do you ever think about that?”

“No,” Loki said.

 

 **3**.

“It is nothing, brother,” Loki said, shaking his head and grinning. “Barely a scratch.” He removed his hand and showed Thor what appeared to be nothing more than a little nick on his left side.

Thor’s eyes stared for several moments, until he drew back with a relieved expression. “I am glad,” he said, as the colour came back to his cheeks. “Nevertheless, we should end our sparring here for today. They are probably wondering where we ended up.”

Loki pressed his lips together and nodded. “Go, brother. I shall find some shadow beneath the branches and read for a while.”

He waited as Thor picked his sword back from the ground – tossed carelessly his haste to get to Loki – and he watched as Thor’s figure became smaller and smaller, until he felt safe enough to interrupt the illusion and let a moan out.

 

 **4.**

When he next sees Thor he’s so surprised that he’s almost hit by one of the rays the man in the flying armour is shooting from his hands. He dodges easily and comes down to meet his brother face to face.

Loki never presumed that Asgard would have stayed cut off from the rest of the realms after the Bifrost was destroyed, but nor did he think they would manage to rebuild it so quickly. This is irrefutably Thor, though, and the last time Loki has seen him he was dangling from the Rainbow Bridge, his horrified face getting smaller and smaller as Loki fell endlessly.

It should be fitting that they meet again, on the battlefield, and once again as enemies if Loki’s assumption that he is together with these would-be superhumans is correct.

“Brother,” Thor says, as if he can’t quite believe his eyes. Mijolnir lies peaceful at his side as Thor’s companions scream for him to do something, anything. “You live. How-” he trails off, then and takes a step forward, spreading his arms a little as if to embrace him. “I have missed you,” he says finally, with a grimace.

Loki grins widely. “I have not,” he says and aims a burst of energy at his not-brother.

The aim is not true, though, and it bounces off Thor’s shoulder harmlessly. Thor growls in rage and lighting crackles around Mijolnir.

Loki spreads images of himself as far as he can, weaving through them as Thor destroys them by the second, screaming his rage, and he laughs and laughs and laughs.

 

 **5.**

“I sleep soundly at night, brother, for what has happened is not mine to regret.”

 

 **1.**

Loki can’t breathe, Thor’s hands are at his throat, fingers circling his neck like tendrils of unbreakable steel.

“No more,” Thor growls into his face. His eyes are wide and angry and of a blue that can only be found in the skies of Asgard in a cloudless day. “You shall not speak in riddles, you shall not lie, you shall not tarnish my ears with your venom.”

Loki is clawing at Thor’s neck, trying to get free, he doesn’t know if he can die of asphyxia, but he certainly doesn’t want to find out like this.

And then suddenly the hands are gone and he’s on the ground, gasping and hacking. A shadow falls over him, and when Loki looks up, Thor is looking down at him, as it always was and always will be.

“How did we get here, brother?” Thor says, he still calls him that despite the fact that they are not related by blood. “Was it jealousy? Was it envy? Or is it as they say; that your nature is that of a mischievous trickster and that no one in all the realms can escape their nature and their destiny?”

Thor is a dark shape against the sun.

The truth is Loki abhors order and revels in chaos, for chaos is interesting and order is an apathy state.

The truth is Loki, for all his planning and his thinking five steps ahead of everyone, took the first step of his journey without much thought at all.

The truth is Loki has loved, but it was never enough.

The truth is Loki is Loki and Thor is Thor and they can’t be anything but.

“I don’t know,” Loki says, at last. “I don’t know.”

Thor doesn’t say anything and after a few moments, the dark shape leaves and Loki is left looking at the sun.


End file.
